In order for us unwind here in Langkawi, let me rewind a couple of days to Saturday, when we left Seoul to start the holiday. Since buses are the most efficient means of transportation in and around Seoul, we chose to take the bus the airport. It's a charter bus, makes few stops and at 6 am on a Saturday the trip only took 45 minutes. What is Incheon Airport like on the Saturday before the Thanksgiving holiday on Monday? Exactly like any airport in the U.S. before Thanksgiving, multiplied by 10.
I was curious about Incheon Airport and found a plethora of fun facts that I thought the frequent flyers might find interesting. Incheon is a port city in Western South Korea on the Yellow Sea. Incheon Airport is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. It is currently the eighth busiest airport in Asia, the ninth busiest in the world in terms of passengers and the world's second busiest in terms of freight and cargo. From 2006 to 2008, it was rated the best airport in the world by the Airports Council International and received the full 5-star ranking by Skytrax, a recognition shared only by Hong Kong International Airport and Singapore Changi Airport. The airport has a golf course, spa, private sleeping rooms, ice skating rink, a casino, indoor gardens and a Museum of Korean Culture. Also, in 2008, Incheon was named the second best airport to sleep in, according to Seoul's Foreign Ministry. The best? Singapore's Changi Airport. The worst? Paris' Charles de Gaulle. All of these accolades explain the experience that was about to unfold and a par for the Peterson's course of airline travel methods.
We were booked on Air Asia, similar to the discount airlines of Europe, comparable to Southwest in the U.S. (but with assigned seats, thank God). Since we were traveling to another country, thinking we might obtain some have-to-have large objects, we chose to check bags with lots of extra room for the potential acquisitions. Check-in was easy, then came security. For those of you who are frequent flyers and think you have experienced the longest lines in security, take that and double it, then loop it back on itself, times two. This is what the security line at Incheon was two days before Thanksgiving.
We were in the part of the line that was looping back on the original line, with an hour until departure (with boarding already beginning due to it being an international flight) when what I will call an "Air Asia Angel" appeared, looking up and down the line for passengers booked on the Kuala Lampur flight. We were the only ones and with that she swooped us out of the line, moving us to the front. She then explained to the passengers that were up next to go through security that our flight was leaving and we needed to be let through. It was as if she were Moses and the passengers were a more than accommodating Red Sea. No one protested, no one tried to say that their flight was also about to leave, everyone simply graciously let us though. I think we can all agree this would never happen at LaGuardia, for example.
After clearing security and a customs/visa check we proceeded to play out that scene in Home Alone where the entire family is running through O'Hare at Christmastime to make a flight to Paris. Funny enough, I used to watch this movie religiously back in the day, and secretly longed to run through airports to catch flights. This probably stems from never flying anywhere as a kid and the whole idea of flying having such great appeal. Little did I know I would marry someone who has an incredible love for running to catch flights, walking on a flights as the doors close, and switching flights last minute to arrive a few minutes ahead of the original one. So just like in Home Alone, we ran and ran and ran, that funny kind of run when you're carrying heavy bags that you can't really run with. We followed our little "Air Asia Angel" down elevators, on the tram, on the moving sidewalk, all the way to what felt like another airport. We made it. I have run through many airports, but have never run with an escort who was in contact with the gate the entire time making it her personal mission that we did not miss the flight. What service. No wonder the airport has such high ratings, however, I'd rather not reenact this scene again.
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